THE BRITISH ARISTOCRAT AND HIS NEST OF SECRET LOVERS EXPOSED

THE TOMLIN-HOBART STORY... SONS OF SOLDIERS: People often compare researching a family history to solving a crime and the process of investigation is much the same but arguably more profound. In the same manner that forensic detectives catch alleged lawbreakers with the aid of DNA, it is now used on a broader scale in genealogy to help track down ‘lost’ genetic relatives. In this case, a YDNA test helped to unlock the mystery of a child’s genetic father. In 1926, Margaret Tomlin a young farmer’s daughter from Hertfordshire in England was employed by a leading  aristocratic family with direct links to the British Royal Family. At just eighteen-years-old Margaret was naive to say the least and did not understand the machinations of the British Establishment but coming from the working classes she certainly understood her place in the British social class system and should not have had ideas ‘above her station’. 
In the first two years of her employment as a domestic nurse to the ailing 7th Earl of Buckinghamshire, Margaret’s life was weighed down by hard work, long hours, decorum, responsibility and lessons in elocution. Occasionally she would travel home the fourteen miles to see her mother and surviving siblings at Bulstrode Farm on the Shendish Estate owned by Charles Longman of Longman Publishing fame. There was little excitement for the domestic nurse at home or at work but as the new year 1928 broke, everything was set to change, although Margaret did not know it then. The 7th Earl had one son who was his only heir to the Earldom but he was in Brisbane, Australia. A telegram was sent to the heir to the Earldom advising that he should return to England immediately as his father was seriously ill and might die. 
But in 1928 it took three months to sail to England from Australia and his Lordship was not inclined to return immediately. There had been a serious family argument before he left home aboard a freighter in 1925 and the relationship between father and son had been tense. But realising his sense of duty to family and the British Empire, young Bertie booked a passage for home and an encounter with fate that no one could have predicted or wanted.  He landed at Southampton docks in April 1928. Within days he was back with his family and found a new warmth with his father but little else had changed with his draconian mother and his scheming elder sister Lady Dorothy. 
Their fractious relationship was little healed and Bertie never forgot the appalling bullying and cruelty his sisters subjected him to when he was a child. He was determined to stamp his total authority on the situation and was keen to remind everyone that he was the sole heir to the ailing Earldom. For a time everything was calm albeit on the surface and arguments soon broke out again. Distraught, he sought solace and comfort in the arms of a pretty domestic nurse who adored him. Margaret was a comely young woman, buxom, well-raised and intelligent despite her lower social class status. Bertie was intent on becoming a gentleman farmer and with Margaret coming from generations of farmers, they had much in common to discuss. They loved the land and for a time each other until disaster struck. The foolishness and recklessness of youth overcame their reason and they began an impossible secret affair. 
Not that the 7th Earl would have objected to his son’s extracurricular activities; for centuries aristocrats had enjoyed sexual relations with their female domestics and it was tradition to indulge with the pretty girls albeit behind the scenes and even rape was commonplace. For aristocratic men it was about indulging their sexual appetites without recourse to public scandal or the involvement of the law courts. But Margaret thought Bertie was different and ignored her worried mother’s advice. He was warm, charming, affectionate and interested it seemed only in her but was it all an act? The domestic nurse was just two years his junior but had seen nothing of the world outside rural Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Whereas Bertie had indulged, and in Australia had developed a passion for alcohol and gambling among the coarse jackeroos in the outback. Their relationship intensified and it was not long before Bertie’s sister discovered the truth about their illicit liaison. She attempted to break it up before Bertie got into serious trouble but he indulged in the relationship even more just to spite his hated sister. He was rebellious, impetuous and heading for disaster if the press ever found out what he had done and Margaret almost exposed the entire affair. The fallout would have been catastrophic for the Hobarts and it simply had to be covered up to prevent a scandal. 
Before his death in 1930, the 7th Earl of Buckinghamshire took control of the situation before any damage was done to the ancient family name. He died thinking the dynasty was in safe hands but his son was prone to excesses in London gambling dens and was known to hit the bottle with a self-destructive vengeance. He sat in the House of Lords for thirty-three years and the press never once exposed his dirty secrets. And his sister Lady Dorothy Hope-Morley was Machiavellian and knew exactly how to get what she wanted from Bertie whom she manipulated with ease. And Margaret of course was left holding the baby as it were and guarding secrets that she had been threatened with “hell on earth" never to reveal. She never forgot or forgave the man who took her virginity and tossed her aside like a used rag to fend for herself. She loathed him to the end of her days but kept his dirty secrets to protect her children from harm at the hands of the ruthless British Establishment. 
In the final reckoning Bertie got his comeuppance, a broken man, lonely, cheated of the right to live his life as he wanted and then robbed of everything he had inherited having already lost the family home in 1938. Hundreds of years of history honourably begun by his ancestor, the hanging judge Sir Henry Hubbard, Attorney General to King James I, came to an end in disgrace and no one wanted to mention Bertie’s name - he was forgotten until now. But there were others who wanted to mention his name and find out everything they could about him and the life he led. His illegitimate sons and their sons sought out the man who blighted their lives to expose a truly appalling story for the first time in the Sons of Soldiers. It is said some riddles aren’t meant to be solved but with the advance of science and DNA testing there are no hiding places left for life’s love rats. One of his illegitimate sons took a YDNA test and scored a positive match with cousins of the Hobart-Hampdens and a new chapter of investigation began. 
The author Simon Tomlin entered a world of lies, cheats and outright betrayal to uncover the truth about his father’s true genetic lineage. He received some cooperation from the 10th Earl of Buckinghamshire but found most of the Hobart family to be schemers and money-mad liars who would do anything to prevent the family name from being besmirched... by their own actions. And after a three-year battle with HM Government agencies, and with considerable help from his American cousins, he uncovered the dark truth about his ruthless grandfather. The 8th Earl of Buckinghamshire died in January 1963 and many British aristocrats thought his death was very suspicious. He had lost a small fortune in London gambling dens and lived the high life and paid the ultimate price for his wanton lifestyle. 
But there was much more to the 8th Earl than drinking, gambling and and womanising as this book will show. It is one of the great stories of the modern age, mixed with a sharp blend of intrigue, suspense, plotting and backstabbing. Rich and powerful people, as history proves only too well, are prepared to go to any lengths to protect their dynasties but one man was prepared to go any lengths to ensure the truth was revealed to the world. In ancient times, two knights would have met in single combat to the death to settle the disputed issue. Sons of Soldiers is the modern version of single combat, especially in the coming of the age of the great upheaval for the ancient aristocratic House of Hobart-Hampden....